A little while ago I advertised the sale of Crusader Kings 2 at 75% off.

The reason I did that is not just because of my love for the company; don’t get me wrong, I do support Paradox and all their endeavours – I buy pretty much every damn DLC they release because I always know it’s going to be good. I had a more selfish reason to display it though. I want my friend to buy it.

This game is… Good. It is so good. And yet, somehow, it is so damn niche that a lot of people either haven’t heard of it or just simply don’t care! Why?!

Whilst at work the other day – menial phone surveys; hey, a guy’s gotta eat – I was perusing the CK2 forums as I usually do. A member of the cleaning staff put his face next to mine, paused for a moment and then said “Another CK2 fan, eh? Finally!” Thus began a rather long discussion about the game, it’s inherent merits and its general awesomeness. Nice guy. Obviously I was terrified to begin with; I assumed this person was about to the murder me and eat my face. Maybe he still will? Perhaps the game attracts homicidal people? Can’t tell. What I can tell is that the game is so fantastic and yet so damn unknown, that people who do enjoy it are so desperately hoping to lure other people into playing just so they can have someone to damn talk to about it.

I’ve been somewhat successful so far in luring at least one of my friends to the game. I’ve been selling it as a truly glorious medieval dynasty simulator wherein one could accomplish whatever goals you set for yourself in a truly epic history of your own. Instead, I should have just mentioned it has a critically acclaimed and wholesomely accurate ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’  conversion mod. Next time it’s on sale, he’s going to buy it; thank christ, someone to talk to about the damn game…

Of course, he playing Heart of Iron before, so he’s somewhat used to Paradox Interactive games. That’s the main problem however; people who aren’t used to it just have no idea what to expect or how to go about learning it.

I started on the original Crusader Kings, and a little bit of Heart of Iron. It was… so hard. I don’t even remember who I played – what countries, what families… It was all a blur of inheritance laws, rebels, embarking mechanics and other confusions. I don’t know how I eventually got good at it, but I did. So, when CK2 was released, I bought it Day 1 and then of course spend the next few weeks horribly confused all over again.

And I loved it.

And so will you. I’m not paid by Paradox or anything like that (unless you really want me to, PI… Call me) but I simply just want more people to talk to about the game! It’s so moddable, so fun, so re-playable that I always have questions: How can I make it so I can play as the founder of the de Normandie dynasty? Is there events? How do I get an invasion army for free at the beginning of the game so I can go raiding? These are things that I’ve had to deduce on my own (well… with the help of the fantastic modding community that exists on the PI forums hint-hint) but which I would love to discuss with friends. At least my girlfriend is picking it up, and dammit I hope she likes it. We could totally play multiplayer together. That’d be awesome.

I just want other people to buy the damn game so I can play it with them!

Or… Maybe I just want to see them lose everything due to accidentally marrying their heir matrilineally. Yeah… that too.

Addendum: I might actually be doing an AAR (After Action Report, kinda like a Let’s Play with more roleplaying) on the CK forums soon, so stay tuned for that!